Striking a balance between culture and fun.

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I made a pasta sauce for lunch, I put in courgette. I never forgo an opportunity to repeatedly say courgette in a French accent. Furthermore, I enjoy pouring sizeable buckets of scorn on anyone who might call it a zucchini, that’s a lie I’ve never judged anyone for calling them zukinis, it’s called cultural linguistic variation, get over it.

I think it’s David Mitchell (off of Mitchell & Webb not off of Cloud Atlas)’s fault that we’re all so openly judgemental about grammar and spelling and all that, since he started getting really vocal about it – fair enuff – for the purposes of comedy, but let’s leave it there, on the stage/screen/podcast where it belongs. I don’t think that serious linguistic correction gets us far at all, apart from sometimes being funny to watch when they get worked up about it. I even remember joining a facebook group all about judging punctuation. Well I’ve changed my mind, yes it gets on my nerves, and yes it might be better if you learned the rules, but if language is about communication and you can tell what that person is trying to say, then, well, fine, leave it out, stop it! All those things that men shout at noisy children in cinemas – watch it, oi, shut yer little gob – all that, that’s what I’m saying to these self appointed grammar Nazis. Pack it in!